Through the use of language, as symbolic action, man attempts to control his social, natural, and supernatural environments. In this book J. David Sapir, J. Christopher Crocker, and their fellow contributors investigate the nature of metaphor and related symbolic forms as a means of coming to terms with the world.

J. David Sapir, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Virginia, the author of numerous articles on African languages and symbolism, spent three and a half years in Senegal doing field work on the language, folklore, and religious symbolism of the Kujamaat Diola of the lower Casamance.

J. Christopher Crocker was Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Virginia.